â€¢ The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror.

- Osama Bin Laden has declared that the â€œthird world warâ€¦is ragingâ€? in Iraq, and it will end there, in â€œeither victory and glory, or misery and humiliation.â€?

- Bin Ladenâ€™s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has declared Iraq to be â€œthe place for the greatest battle,â€? where he hopes to â€œexpel the Americansâ€? and then spread â€œthe jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq.â€?

- Al Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has openly declared that â€œwe fight
today in Iraq, and tomorrow in the Land of the Two Holy Places, and after there the
west.â€?

âœ” As the terrorists themselves recognize, the outcome in Iraq â€“ success or failure â€“ is critical to the outcome in the broader war on terrorism.

[emphasis in original]

Again, they're trying to assert that the civil war in Iraq is a foreign operation, instead of a conflict between Iraqis with over 1000 years of historical conflict. How ironic that one of the biggest problems about our Iraq occupation -- that al-Qaeda uses it as a recruitment poster -- is what the Bush Administration crows about as reasons for staying.

The document reads like a division report in a corporate boardroom. It's full of bullet points of declarations and assertions, but little actual argument and essentially no supporting evidence to support their claims. Maybe some paid analysts can take the time to scrutinize the language and find something that's actually new ... or convincing.

The document has an appendix called "The Eight Pillars" which purports to lay out a strategy for success -- a tacit admission that the 28 pages coming before fail to do just that. (I expect the phrase "The Eight Pillars" will be rolling off wingnutter lips over the coming days.)

Right up front is one that is almost ludicrous in content:

Defeat the Terrorists and Neutralize the Insurgency

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE: Iraq is not a source of terrorists or terrorist resources, and neither terrorists, Saddamists, nor rejectionists are able to prevent Iraqâ€™s political and economic progress. They cannot stop the Iraqi governmentâ€™s development of a constitutional representative democracy, the provision of essential services, a market economy that provides goods, services, and employment for Iraqis, or the free flow of information and ideas.

They go on to assert that the Iraqis fighting US forces are actually foreigners. And they argue that all we need to do is establish peace and stability in order to stop terrorism -- in Iraq. Setting aside the circular logic for a moment, I wonder how we are to stop the ever-increasing and ever-more-bloody violence of the uprisings without establishing the very kind of police state Saddam Hussein had.

These pillars go on and on with other steps that, it seems to me, are more than a few days late and way way way more than a few dollars short.

Why didn't they think of any of this before?

The Bush quote at the end is perhaps most telling:

This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence. In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our nerve, and we will win that victory.

Then maybe we should focus our "war on terror" efforts on the real terrorists, instead of trying to play favorites in an Iraqi civil war and declaring it a war on terror.

I may not be a warrior (neither is Bush), but it seems to me that it takes more than bravado to win a war. And if war is merely the practice of politics by other means, then this war is steering our politics down the wrong path -- to more bloody massacres, more corruption, more criminality and, in the end, financial ruin.

Just don't expect Bush to realize it, let alone admit it. He has a gift for running things into the ditch. He thinks he's found virtue in that by labeling pig-headed stubbornness as "decisiveness." Three more years of this kind of "leadership" is looking increasingly disastrous. America will survive, but at what cost?

Video is at Crooks and Liars. (For those who don't want to look, it's "home video" footage looking out the rear window of a car while gunners shoot at cars behind them. There is no blood and gore, just a lot of cars veering off the road, many into wrecks.)

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad.

It really says something about the state of "success" in Iraq when people can routinely fire machine guns out car windows at civilians ... and nobody notices (except the victims, obviously).

The video first appeared on the website www.aegisIraq.co.uk. The website states: "This site does not belong to Aegis Defence Ltd, it belongs to the men on the ground who are the heart and soul of the company." The clips have been removed.

The website also contains a message from Lt Col Spicer, which reads: "I am concerned about media interest in this site and I remind everyone of their contractual obligation not to speak to or assist the media without clearing it with the project management or Aegis London.

"Refrain from posting anything which is detrimental to the company since this could result in the loss or curtailment of our contract with resultant loss for everybody."

Yes, by all means, don't publicize your homicidal conduct because it might affect the boom line. Nice to see that Aegis has their priorities straight.

Capt Adnan Tawfiq of the Iraqi Interior Ministry which deals with compensation issues, has told the Sunday Telegraph that he has received numerous claims from families who allege that their relatives have been shot by private security contractors travelling in road convoys.

He said: "When the security companies kill people they just drive away and nothing is done. Sometimes we ring the companies concerned and they deny everything. The families don't get any money or compensation. I would say we have had about 50-60 incidents of this kind."

Never mind that Iraqis are dying all too easily these days. Seeking to combine his pro-militarist political views with the teenage boy-focused popular entertainment centered on blowing the fuck out of things, Bruce Willis is going to make his own alternative vision of how the war on Iraq is going.

On the surface, it doesn't seem to be an ideological tract:

It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Personally I think any movie that realistically portrays our soldiers' stories is a good thing. How would we understand World War 2 without the hundreds of movies about that conflict and aftermath?

But Willis seems to be coming at this with an agenda.

ANGERED by negative portrayals of the Iraq conflict, actor Bruce Willis is to make a pro-war film in which US soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.

Willis said it would be wrong for Americans to give up on Iraq just as progress was being made.

"The Iraqi people want to live in a world where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed," he said. "I mean, doesn't everybody want that?"

The question is how. Can democracy be imposed by generous application of cluster bombs, phosphorous and heavy machine guns? What are our goals in this civil war we've unleashed? Are we doing the Iraqis any favors by making every place we occupy a target?

Willis seems to be upset that the news today does not reflect what he saw in 2003, when he toured Iraq with his rock band. (Yes, he has a rock band.)

Willis visited the war zone with his rock and blues band, the Accelerators, in 2003.

"I am baffled to understand why the things I saw happening in Iraq are not being reported," he told MSNBC, the US news channel.

Of course, 2003 was a long, long time ago.

The movie represents an interesting gambit. The movie seems to be a pro-Bush propaganda piece about a war that's vastly unpopular with Americans. But lots of people are sure to die in graphic detail, with plenty of explosions and humorous one-liners -- a Hollywood recipe for a high chance of success for the past 20-30 years.

So the real question is: If he blows the shit out of people and things, will the audiences come?

Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

The communique _ finalized by Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders Monday _ condemned terrorism but was a clear acknowledgment of the Sunni position that insurgents should not be labeled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.In other words: Attacking US troops and Iraqi military forces are to be considered legitimate.

I can see Bush shouting at staffers while Cheney scrambles to find out what happened to their puppet strings that were supposed to keep Iraqi leaders toeing the BushCo PR campaign.

On Monday, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr suggested U.S.-led forces should be able to leave Iraq by the end of next year, saying the one-year extension of the mandate for the multinational force in Iraq by the U.N. Security Council this month could be the last.Not content to stop there, the Iraqis also issued a smack-down call to release political prisoners and end the torture.

In Egypt, the final communique's attempt to define terrorism omitted any reference to attacks against U.S. or Iraqi forces. Delegates from across the political and religious spectrum said the omission was intentional. They spoke anonymously, saying they feared retribution.

"Though resistance is a legitimate right for all people, terrorism does not represent resistance. Therefore, we condemn terrorism and acts of violence, killing and kidnapping targeting Iraqi citizens and humanitarian, civil, government institutions, national resources and houses of worships," the document said.

The final communique also stressed participants' commitment to Iraq's unity and called for the release of all "innocent detainees" who have not been convicted by courts. It asked that allegations of torture against prisoners be investigated and those responsible be held accountable.See, that's the "problem" with pretending to spread democracy, Mr. Bush: The people tend to embrace the ideas, and take action accordingly. How ironic that the Bush Administration's disregard for international law and the Geneva Convention may lead to Iraq's holding America's feet to the fire.

We are going to be paying big time and for a long long time for all the fuck-ups -- done by malicious design or utter incompetence -- perpetrated by the present administration.

I remember when, right after 9/11, the entire world was with us, united against the extremist fanatics who committed such an appalling crime against humanity. Now I see a world that does not trust the US.

Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. in Arlington, VA received $15 million for Task Order 0020 under its $500 million maximum "emergency response" contract with the US government. DID covered the particulars of that contract on Monday; they set out a number of specifications that leave just a handful of global firms able to meet them.

Task Order 0020 is a cost reimbursement, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity construction capabilities contract for post-Katrina recovery efforts in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for "unwatering activities" in Plaquemines, East and West basins, New Orleans, LA.